In addition to thousands of local events around the world (too numerous to mention) marking the International Day of Peace on September 21, five important international meetings for a culture of peace took place in September.
1 - Addis Ababa (Ethiopia)
At the headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, representatives established a "Network of Foundations and Research Institutions Promoting a Culture of Peace in Africa." The network is part of the Action Plan for a Culture of Peace in Africa that was established earlier this year at the Luanda Forum (see CPNN of March 26).
Geneva (Switzerland)
The annual meeting of the Global Alliance of Ministries and Infrastructures for Peace heard reports from the highest level gathering of national peace ministries in the history of the organization. Most impressive was the National Peace Council in Ghana which represents a broad spectrum of Ghanian society and is credited with helping to maintain peace during and after national election campaigns. Similar initiatives were described from elsewhere in Africa, as well as Kyrgyzstan, Nepal and Costa Rica.
UN headquarters in New York
For the second straight year, the United Nations General Assembly sponsored a High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace, featuring primarily reports from civil society organizations.
Bangkok (Thailand)
The UNESCO office in hosted a meeting of educators and historians in a long-term project to produce materials for history education in South-East Asia that promote peace and mutual understanding instead of conflict between nationalistic histories that has been called "culture wars."
|
VIDEOS |
French Spanish |
Stockholm (Sweden)
The International Peace Bureau (IPB) held its Triennial gathering which concluded that "the forming of international coalitions for military intervention is now much more difficult as public opinion against war has become so strong. People are weary of war and the deceit and rhetoric that go with it. They are suspicious of double speak and are tired of `humanitarian' statements which end with actions that simply generate more human suffering".
The IPB awarded their annual peace prize to Chelsea/Bradley Manning, the whistleblower imprisoned for having divulged secret information about American culture of war activities . No doubt the whistleblower activities of Manning, Robert Snowden, Glenn Greenwald and Julian Assange have greatly contributed to this growing public opinion against war.
Finally, in the same spirit as last month's bulletin about peace education activities, CPNN has recently published reports on the development of peace education in Armenia and Nicaragua.
